


By Your Voice to Guide Me Home

by SharkbaitHooHaHa



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Conscience!Soulmate, M/M, Slight enemies to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 14:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12890205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharkbaitHooHaHa/pseuds/SharkbaitHooHaHa
Summary: A Soulmate AU, in which people have a voice in their head that reflects the character of their soulmate.Noctis was certain that he would recognize his soul mate when he met them. For one, they had an accent. For two, they were quite possibly the most condescending, stuck-up, conceited person he had ever heard. For three, they had an insatiable love of puns.Ignis wasn’t sure if he’d ever meet his soulmate, and he didn’t particularly care. For one, they were lazy beyond belief. For two, they were constantly trying to goad him into breaking out of his well-ordered lifestyle. For three, for whatever reason, they complained the entire time Ignis tried to cook vegetables. It was tiresome.And Noct and Ignis both knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that their supposed soulmates were the last people in the entire world that they would ever want to spend the rest of their lives with.





	By Your Voice to Guide Me Home

**Author's Note:**

> I'm excited to be posting this! It's an idea I've been toying with for a bit, so I hope you guys enjoy it! I can't say for certain at this time how often I'll be able to update, as I'm currently also co-writing a pretty massive polyship roadtrip fic that already takes up a lot of my time, but I'll do so as often as I can. This fic should be less than ten chapters long, by what I have planned in my head, but that may change.

“I’ll definitely know my soulmate when I meet him,” Noctis said to Prompto one day. Somehow, over the course of their gaming session, they had landed on the topic of their Echoes; the voice inside their head that reflected the character and heart of their soulmate.

“How can you  _possibly_ know that? Do you know how many people actually meet their soulmate and then take  _years_ to figure out who it is? Voices aren't always the easiest way to identify someone, man,” Prompto said, accidentally elbowing Noct in the side as he moved his entire body the same way he was pulling the joystick. “Whoops! Sorry, man. Oh! Behind you!”

“Well, first of all--reload, Prompto, reload--he has an accent.”

“We know loads of people with accents, Noct,” Prompto pointed out. “There’s Luna, Cindy, Cid--ooh, maybe your soulmate is Cid!” Prompto shot Noct a teasing grin.

“It’s a really  _pompous_ one,” Noct said, electing to ignore Prompto’s jab. “Like ‘oh, hello, my name is Sir Stuffypants the Third and I’m the Crown Prince--”

“Noct, you are the heir to one of the top five earning companies in the  _world_. You literally might as well be a Prince.”

Noct gave him a flat look and continued. “--and I’m the Crown Prince of Hoighty-Toighty land, ohohohoho!”

“So, Ravus. You’re soulmate is Ravus.”

Noct pulled a face. “Gods, no!”

“You sure?”

“My soulmate is  _not_ Ravus.”

“Good, because he’s even more of a drama queen than you are.” Prompto laughed. “Please don’t tell him I said that, he still scares me,” he added, talking so fast the words almost slurred together.

Noct snorted. “Ravus talks big, but I don’t think he could even hurt a fly.”

Prompto rolled his eyes. “What are the other reasons?”

Noct watched his HP dwindle and scrambled to pull up the menu to drink a healing potion. “Huh?”

“For knowing your soulmate when you meet him? You said ‘first of all,’ so you must have more, right?” Prompto swore under his breath. “I’m down. Revive me?”

“Right,” Noctis said, running his avatar over to Prompto’s character. “Well, second of all, he’s literally the most high-strung, goody-two-shoes, straight-up boring person I’ve ever heard of. I literally can’t even take a shit without him criticizing me--

“Telling you to replace the toilet paper roll once you’ve used it up is not a criticism, Noct.” Prompto interrupted, remembering the time they had been hanging out and Noct had suddenly stormed into the bathroom yelling at his Echo that he’d replace the toilet paper if it could just shut the  _hell_ up.

Noct scowled. “Everything’s a fucking lecture. Even right now, he’s nagging me to do the dishes.”

Prompto craned his neck towards the kitchen to eye the sink, which was piled high with dishes. “He might have a point, dude…”

Noct scowled. “What, now you two are teaming up on me?”

 _“You would do well to listen to us, lest you_ sink  _even further into filth.”_ Noct’s Echo said.

“I thought of another reason,” Noct said flatly, turning to Prompto.

Prompto raised his brows in question.

Noct’s face soured. “He makes  _puns_ ,” he spat out.

Prompto’s uproarious laughter was not helping Noct’s mood.

“We’re almost to the boss. You ready this time?” he asked

Prompto tried to catch his breath. “I’m telling you, dude, we’re way too low a level for this fight. We should do some grinding first.”

“Tch. I hate grinding. C’mon, let’s go.”

As Prompto had predicted, the battle ended in a spectacular failure, with Noct’s character getting one-hit KO’d and Prompto’s falling shortly after.

Noct threw his controller across the room in frustration.  _“You should treat your belongings with more care.”_ Okay, so his Echo had a point there. Not that Noct would admit it. “Wanna get burgers?” he asked instead.

Prompto’s pout over their loss immediately dissolved into a grin. “Yeah! Want me to run out and grab something?”

Noct pulled out his cell phone. “Nah, I’ll just call Gladio. We’ll all go eat there. That way we can order sundaes for dessert without them melting everywhere.”

“I thought Gladio had the day off?” Prompto asked. “To help his roommate unpack?”

Noct frowned. Ever since he was almost kidnapped as a child, his father had been overly protective, insisting that he take his bodyguard with him anytime he left his apartment. No Gladio meant no burgers. “Does he? How do you know?”

Prompto rolled his eyes. “Gee, I dunno, maybe I just listen when people talk.”

 _“You did give Gladio the day off, you shouldn’t disturb him. You could eat something here. A salad won’t kill you. Probably.”_ Well, his soulmate was clearly mentally compromised. Such a shame.

“Let’s just eat something here,” Prompto suggested. “I saw enough ingredients for a salad in the fridge.” Apparently, so was Prompto. Tragedy.

“Not happening,” Noct said flatly.

“Then let me go grab the food. I swear I’ll be quick so the sundaes don’t melt!” Prompto pleaded.

Noct eyed Prompto curiously. “...Do you have some sort of problem with Gladio?”

“No!” Prompto answered way too quickly, waving his hands in the air.

Noct narrowed his eyes.

Prompto sighed. “It’s not that we get along  _badly_ ,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “We just don’t… get along well? I mean, I don’t dislike him, but we don’t really...agree on a lot of things?”

“You guys have always argued over stupid shit,” Noct pointed out. “It’s always been in a friendly way, though. Did that change?”

“No, I mean, we’re still friends, I guess…” Prompto shrugged.

“...But?”

“But sometimes I wanna punch him in his big, stupid face,” Prompto said with a pout.

Noct narrowed his eyes at his best friend. “...This is about what he said about chocobos, isn’t it?”

“He said moogles were better, Noct,” Prompto cried, sounding positively scandalized. “ _Moogles_!”

Noct rolled his eyes. “Right, well...” He hit the quick dial for Gladio and put the phone to his ear.

Gladio answered on the third ring.  _“In case you’ve forgotten, I have the day off, so if you’re calling me you’d better be either dead or actively dying. Which is it?”_

Noct yawned. “Both?”

Gladio snorted.  _“Strange, you certainly don’t_ sound  _like you’re being murdered. You trying to change that?”_

Noct hummed noncommittally. “Depends. After you’ve finished killing me can we get burgers from that diner by my place?”

_“...That place with the fried pickles?”_

“That’s the one.”

There was a pause as Gladio considered.  _“You’re lucky I’m actually hungry.”_

“Cool. Hurry up, I’m starving.” Noct hung up without waiting for a reply. “Gladio’s coming,” he reported, turning to Prompto and frowning at the wide grin on his friend’s face. “What?”

Prompto waved him off. “Nothing, nothing, my Echo just made a funny joke about you already being a zombie.”

Noct’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“You know, you said after Gladio killed you, you still wanted burgers, so in order to get burgers at that point you’d have to be undead--you know what, I can’t explain it right, it doesn’t matter. Just know that it was really funny.”

Noct sighed. Some people were so lucky to get along well with their soulmates.

 

* * *

 

Gladio hung up his phone and slipped it back into his pocket. He shuffled his way past the stacks of boxes that currently occupied his living room and made his way to the spare bedroom, where Ignis was busy unpacking the essentials to make his room livable.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Gladio said. “Work.”

“It’s quite alright,” Ignis replied, hanging up his dress shirts and frowning every so often when he found one that had been wrinkled by the move despite his best efforts. “Is everything okay?” He set aside another shirt with a sigh. It looked like the clothes iron was next on his list of essentials to unpack.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just wants lunch apparently.”

“I thought you were given the day off?” Ignis said with a frown. “He’s a grown man, right? Surely he can figure out how to prepare something on his own.”

Gladio snorted. “You’d be surprised. Pretty sure he could manage to even burn toast.”

Ignis fixed Gladio with a flat look. “Strong words coming from a man who survived off ramen before I got here yesterday.”

Gladio pretended to be offended. “Cup Noodle, Iggy. Big difference.”

“I don’t suppose I could talk you into dropping that nickname?” Ignis asked idly. “We’re not children anymore.”

Gladio grinned. “You could certainly try. Won’t do you a lick of good, though.”

Ignis sighed, but his smile was fond. “I figured as much.”

“Hey, did you want to come with us? This place has the best ice cream sundaes you’ve ever tasted.”

Ignis frowned in concern. “Gladio, you could have told him no. You have the day off, he can’t make you.”

Gladio waved a hand dismissively. “Relax, Iggy, it’s not like that. Besides, I’m hungry.”

“I could prepare something,” Ignis offered. “You don’t have to go to work just to eat.”

“Nah, really, Noct’s a friend.”

Ignis raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Are we talking about the same person you’ve been complaining about in our emails for the past few years?”

Gladio laughed. “That’s the one. He’s actually really not that bad. A bit sheltered, maybe, and definitely spoiled, but overall a decent guy. You’d probably like him. You know, after you got past that whole ‘dear heavens, how do you live in this mess’ cleaning rant you like to do.”

Ignis gave Gladio an unimpressed stare. “Gladio, you didn’t have a single clean dish in your apartment when I got here yesterday. And contrary to what you may believe, the ‘smell test’ is not a viable alternative to laundry.  _And_ I still haven’t gotten that ring out of the tub.”

Gladio held up his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, I get it. Do you want to get burgers with us or not?”

Ignis surveyed the boxes that still had to be unpacked. “I think I’ll pass. I appreciate the offer, though.”

“I bet your Echo is telling you to go,” Gladio said with a smirk.

Ignis sighed. “I regret ever telling you I even had an Echo.”

“Which is your way of saying I’m right.”

“Unfortunately, yes. However, just because my soulmate has no work ethic, doesn’t mean that I have to abandon mine.”

Ignis didn’t  _dislike_ his Echo, per se. But it became painfully obvious ever since the voice of his soulmate began whispering in the back of his mind as a teenager that they had completely different values. While Ignis tried to study, the Echo tried to get him to go play, instead. While Ignis tried to be upstanding and responsible, the Echo was egging him to give into his more base desires and be rebellious and reckless. Granted, the few times he had given in had been memorable and maybe even enjoyable, to an extent, but they were certainly not experiences he intended to repeat

He didn’t know if this was the universe’s idea of a cruel joke or simply a mistake, but the lazy, immature voice in his head couldn’t possibly belong to the person who was supposedly his other half.

“Come on, Ignis,” Gladio said, suddenly serious. “You’ve been working all day. Surely you can take a break. You haven’t lived in the city since you were what, twelve? You could make some friends.”

Another sigh left Ignis’ lips. “I still have simply too much to do, Gladio, I’m sorry. And frankly, I don’t need to be friends with your client.”

 _“You’ve already unpacked about a hundred boxes. Aren’t you bored yet?”_ Ignis’ Echo muttered.

“Well, it’s probably not just Noct,” Gladio said. “Prompto might be there, too.”

“What in the world is a Prompto?”

Gladio laughed. “Noct’s best friend. Nice enough guy, though not someone I’d normally hang out with on my own. He has some weird ideas about how to eat Cup Noodle.”

Ignis raised an eyebrow.

“He boils the water first, Iggy!” Gladio said, as though someone had just insulted him to his face. “Everyone knows they don’t cook right unless you add the water, then heat it up!”

“Heavens,” Ignis said dryly. “That  _savage_.”

 _“I’m booooored. And hungry!”_ Apparently Ignis’ Echo had defied all known laws of physics and evolved its own stomach. How absolutely astounding.

Gladio’s stomach chose that very moment to rumble loudly. From the sound of it, he had two. Scientific curiosities everywhere, it seemed.

Ignis chuckled softly. “Go. I’ll be fine here.”

Gladio shrugged. “If you’re sure.”

Ignis nodded.

“Alright, then,” Gladio said. “Try not to work too hard.”

_“That's the best advice I've heard all day. Too bad you don't know how to listen to it.”_

Ignis scowled.

He heard Gladio snort from the doorway and rolled his eyes as he opened another box. “Let me guess, your Echo just made some brilliantly crafted joke about how it’s impossible for me to not work too hard.”

“Something like that,” Gladio admitted.

“How positively charming. It must be nice to not want to strangle the voice inside your head.”

Gladio grinned as he headed for the door. “Yeah, it’s pretty great.”


End file.
